Thor: Issues
by LJ58
Summary: It seems the battle may be won. Now what?


I do not own any Marvel characters named within, and am only using them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only.

**Thor: Issues**

**By LJ58**

The wind howled around the tall peaks where the golden-haired giant in molded body-armor stood like a stony sentinel, showing no hint of expression as the storm raged around him.

He did not fear the chilling winds, or the jagged lightening.

They were balm to him.

They soothed something deep in his soul.

One hand gripped the leather-bound handle of Mjolnir, and he considered his place in Midgard.

Early in his youth, he had found Midgard, and found it a place much to his liking. He fought alongside untamed Viking hordes trying to hold back their own mortal enemies, and the rampaging Frost Giants commanded by Ymir. When the fighting ended, he was called back by his father Odin to help protect their own world from darker threats.

Much of which came from within after Loki's perfidy was finally exposed during a battle that nearly cost Odin himself his eternal life.

Afterward, with treaties holding the Frost Giants at bay, and Loki condemned to an eternal prison in Hel itself, he found Asgard far too tame for his liking.

The golden-haired adventurer dared to defy his own sire, and once more sought out Midgard. To his astonishment, things had much changed since the days he had last strode the mortal world. The savage warriors he recalled had been replaced by a far more civilized, and more advanced race.

To his delight, the men of the new world were still just as willful as those Norsemen he had favored with his blessings.

Even that brief humiliation visited upon him by Odin did not dampen his thrill for this new world. He found fighting alongside human champions to be almost as invigorating as leading Vikings into battle. There were challenges to be met that dwarfed even those brave souls as he aligned himself with a few select champions that led the fight again unimaginable powers and threats that might have dwarfed even fair Asgard.

He faced mortal, and immortal alike. Human, and inhuman. He once faced fellow gods on a plane that would have defied human comprehension, had they been witness to the battles at all.

For a time, it seemed the parade of villains and foes were legion, and without end.

Then, with the heroes banding together under Fury's SHIELD, they began to truly tame the world. Their science continued to advance, along with a new generation of heroes rising that saw the battles of the past as mistakes to be avoided. And proactively managed.

Midgard began to grow tame.

The New Avengers, even those that followed the fabled Fantastic Four's legacy, had helped ensure that Earth was fast becoming the Utopia many of its early denizens had dreamt of since the first man looked up at the stars, and wondered.

In short, the chaos that once threatened to overwhelm the mortal sphere on this dichotomous planet was fast being eliminated. To his chagrin, he had been a pivotal player in the turning point when hero turned to diplomat, and began to help end the seemingly endless parade of violent offenders that rose to defy any that gained their ire.

The heroes' new methods ensured such madness never took root. Never flourished. And even the oldest, and most stubborn of villains were now laying low to evade detection as the new heroes proved they were more than a match for any that might challenge their new world.

Which left Thor Odinson with a genuine dilemma.

He had come to Midgard as much to help, as to find an outlet for the violence he admitted yet lurked within his own still wild heart. He had slaked his thirst for battle time and again, venting the wildness much like the untamed storm raging about him against true enemies.

Now, however, the enemies were cowed, beaten. Dare he add defeated?

So, what then, did an immortal warrior do when the battle was over?

He pondered the stillness within him even as the storm roared around him.

Did he stay, and see the path to true peace secured here as it had been on Asgard.

He recalled how trying that back home had led to one too many conflict with family, and friend. He had even dared Odin's own wrath in his frustration at times. Would that happen here, too? Would he turn former friend and ally against him with his own thwarted needs?

Perhaps, he continued to ponder, he should leave Midgard, and seek wilder, more savage worlds yet to be tamed. Worlds where he might seek the battle his very spirit demanded, while helping Justice on those unknown spheres. It was not a question easily framed, or answered. Even by one such as him.

So, then, he forced himself to face that deliberate quandary. What did he do?

The storm, a literal extension of his inner turmoil, continued unabated around him as the god of thunder pondered.

_End…_


End file.
